


Stripes

by OneThumpAway



Category: Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Cartoon 2018), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Emotional, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hugs, Hurt/Comfort, Racism in flashback, Self-Esteem Issues, Turtle Tots (TMNT), for the TWR zine!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:28:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28321641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OneThumpAway/pseuds/OneThumpAway
Summary: Splinter whistles happily to himself as he prepares his tea, mind not on anything in particular.Before he can turn on the kettle, though, a small form suddenly launches at his leg, hugging tightly.
Comments: 16
Kudos: 94





	Stripes

**Author's Note:**

> Creative title, I know. 
> 
> Anyways- My piece for the Together We Rise Zine on Twitter! Check it out, all the pieces are great :) Link to zine!

Splinter whistles happily to himself as he prepares his tea, mind not on anything in particular. 

Before he can turn on the kettle, though, a small form suddenly launches at his leg, hugging tightly. 

“Blue?” the rat murmurs, picking up the small slider and cradling him. “What is wrong, son?”

“Scary movie…” 

Ah, right. He'd left them with  _ Spookley the Square Pumpkin _ . Apparently that wasn't tame enough. 

The three-year-old, hardly able to talk yet, shivers and hiccups as Splinter ponders for a second. He'd of course watched the movie beforehand to make sure it was alright for his toddlers, and he can't remember what could be making Blue react like this. Should he just ask? Does that make him a bad father, not being able to already tell? But he really doesn't know, and he wants to help his son however he can—

“Why they so mean t’ him?”

...Oh. He hadn’t thought about that. 

In  _ Spookley _ , the round pumpkins put Spookley, the square one, down for being different from the rest of them. He sometimes forgets that Blue is scared of his own brothers realizing his stripes are unique, and that they’ll tease him. The rat does, of course, know that won’t happen, but the small turtle doesn’t just yet. 

“Sometimes…” the elder mutant starts, making sure the toddler is facing him, “there are creatures who can’t accept others’ differences. I do not know why. We were all designed differently.”

Splinter pauses at that, mind wandering for a second. He thinks back to when he was first starting to get into acting, when he couldn’t ever get a part.

_ “You don’t have the right… look, y’know?” _

_ “What? I fit the entire description, I nailed the audition, I can learn lines incredibly quickly—” _

_ The director waves a hand, cutting off the martial artist’s words. “I don’t want an Asian for the part. Okay? People don’t want  _ **_you.”_ ** __

“Papa?”

The rat shakes his head, sighing and looking at his son again; the boy looks confused now.

“Sorry, my son. Here, would you like to help me prepare my tea?”

“Yeah!” The tails on the turtle’s blue bandana flaps up and down as he claps his hands, bouncing in his father’s arms.

“Alright, my son!” 

The smaller figure crawls around his father’s torso until he’s sitting on his shoulders. “Make! Make!”

The rat lets out a small laugh, turning on the stove and waiting for the water to heat up. 

~~~~~~~~~~

A nine-year-old Leon trudges, ahead of his brothers, away from their so-called “dojo,” which is really just the sewer tunnel next to their home at the moment. He grumbles, trying to hold back his tears as he heads towards the bathroom. 

_ “Today we are going to practice stealth.” _

That’s what Pop had said. They were going to learn to be quieter, to blend in. Since they were beginners, Pop had told them as he rummaged through the strange bag he’d brought, they were going to have to use face paint. 

_ “All of us? Only Nardo has those weird neon stripes on his face.” _

That was Donnie.

He hadn’t meant any harm, the slider is sure. But it still stings.

The blue-masked turtle isn’t sure why. He’s been better about this lately; his mind hasn’t been as loud. He knows his stripes are different, he  _ knows  _ that. Why does it still hurt sometimes?

He locks the door and stands in front of the mirror in the bathroom, tears starting to leak from his eyes as he stares at the red marks on his face. Why are they even there? Why did  _ he _ have to get them? He wouldn’t feel like this if they weren’t there…

He starts rubbing at one of them, as if it’ll go  _ away _ , then blinks. 

What if it  _ could? _

He starts rubbing harder, swallowing as tears continue to flow from his eyes, staining his mask as he tries futilely to get the stripes to just rub away.

There’s a knock on the door, but it’s distant in his frazzled mind, and he doesn’t even register it, the pain from his reddening skin the only thing he can focus on. 

Two hands come from behind him and grab his forearms, holding them up above his head. “Leo!”

Said turtle gasps in surprise, letting out a choked sob as he tries to wrestle away. “Stop, stop stop! They’re going away, they—!”

His eyes open and he looks in the mirror. He lets out a shaky breath, seeing Raph standing behind him, holding his hands up with gentle yet efficient strength. 

Leo’s eyes then settle on his own face again. The stripes haven’t gone away; they’re even more prominent now, and surrounded by red skin. His face scrunches up, and then he starts sobbing again. “Why won’t they go away…?”

He doesn’t protest as he’s turned around to face his brother, nor when Raph crouches down to be eye-level with him. “Leon… They don’t gotta go away.”

“B-But they do! They make me look stupid, and I just wanna look like you guys, and—”

“Why do you have to look like us?” 

The blue-masked turtle looks over Raph’s shoulder to see the new arrivals. Donnie and Mikey are standing there, the latter holding onto Don’s arm, surveying the scene with tears in his own eyes. 

“B-Because I don’t—” Leon sniffles, hiccuping, then launches himself at his brother and hugs him around the neck, burying his face in his shoulder. “I don’t wanna be weird! You guys— You guys just have— _ normal faces! _ And I have these weird things that s-stick out and I—” He sobs, squeezing his eyes shut tight, not noticing his other brothers starting to cry, as well. “I-I’m sorry, I just… w-with what Donald said earlier…”

“Hold on,  _ I  _ caused this?” said softshell demands, tears really going down his face now. He rushes over to the blue- and red-clad brothers and hugs them both, as well as he can with Raph’s larger size. Mikey waddles over a few seconds later and hugs them all as well as possible. 

Leo continues to hide his face in his eldest brother’s shoulder, his tears gradually starting to slow down. 

“Blue…” 

They all look up at the new arrival, and then said slider’s tears start up again, and he covers his red, scrubbed up face. “I’m sorry, Pops…” 

“No, no, my darling boy…” Splinter walks over to them and joins the group hug. “Do not apologize to me, my son…” 

The second youngest turtle finally looks up, eyes red now, as well. “B-But…”

“Let me show you something, Blue. All of you, come to the couch with me.”

He scoops up Leon and carries him with him, and the other turtles follow, each wiping their eyes and looking confused. 

They all sit in a row on the couch, and Splinter puts the blue-loving turtle on the rug in front of them. “Purple. Stand next to Blue.”

Donald looks over at his warm-clad brothers, who shrug, then obeys, standing next to Leon.

“Take off your sweater.”

“It's a hoodie, but okay.” 

Splinter gives the softshell a Look, and Donnie sticks out his tongue and takes off the sweater. “It's cold, Dad…”

“You can put it back on in just a second. Now.” The rat holds up the softshell’s small arm, pointing to his bicep. “What are these?” 

“...They’re purple rectangles, Pops,” Donnie answers when Leo doesn’t.

“Yes, they are. Do your brothers have them?” 

That’s when the elder twin gets it, and he smiles. “Nope. But that’s okay.”

“Exactly. You may sit. Red, come here.”

The two elder turtles switch places. Raph already seems to have caught on, flexing his somewhat impressive, at least for his age, muscles. The small, budding spikes on his biceps stick out a bit, and Leon lets out a small laugh. 

“Okay, okay, but mine are on my face—”

“Which brings me to Orange.”

Leon blinks as Mikey hops up and comes over, already pulling at his mask tails. Splinter laughs, steadying him and untying it. When the mark comes off, small, yet prominent yellow freckles are revealed under his eyes. “See?”

Mikey beams as Leon gives a small smile again, going up to the elder and hugging him around the neck.

“Alright, alright…” the blue-masked turtle pats his younger brother’s head. 

“And y’know what?” Donnie wraps an arm around Leon’s shoulders affectionately. “The red does look cool against your skin. Like an all-year Christmas thing.”

“...I do like Christmas!” Leo grins. 

~~~~~~~~~~

A fourteen-year old mutant ninja turtle runs across the rooftops with his brothers, grinning through his teeth as he does a complicated flip, sticking the landing and spreading his arms out in a teasing manner as his brothers land after him. “Perfect, am I right? 11/10?”

“Psh.” Donatello crosses his arms, letting out a snort. “Seven at best.”

“What?” Leo makes an offended face. “How dare you! You couldn’t even do better!”

“Wanna bet?” 

_ “Yeah.”  _

The twins get up in each others’ faces, sneering (although obviously not actually mad), and Raph looks like he’s about to say something when they hear a cry from below. The four brothers immediately go over to the edge of the roof, where a woman is being confronted by a single mugger.

“Psh? Just one guy? I can handle him,” Leo slicks his nonexistent hair back, preparing to jump from the roof.

“Hurry up, Leon! My tum tum needs sustenance.” Michael rubs his mid-plastron to emphasize his point.

“No worries, Mike! I’ll be done in a minute, flat!”

Raph rolls his eyes, letting out a laugh and pushing his brother down into the alley.

Leon lets out a hearty laugh, landing on the mugger’s shoulders lightly and knocking him over. “Alright, dude, let’s get you taken care of so I can get my little bro some ‘za.”

He stands up off the mugger, giving him a few seconds to stand. When he does, he blinks at the sight before him, then looks towards where the woman he’d been harassing should be; she’s long gone by now, though. He looks back at the turtle, sneering.

“What the heck are you doin’, freak? I had a good score there.”

“Aw, boo hoo!” Leo fake pouts, further enraging the mugger. “Why don’t you cry about it to the  _ police?” _

“I’m the criminal? You should be arrested just for your looks. Random turtle with ugly red stripes on his face? You’d be better off as a circus freak than tryin’ to stop me.”

Leon freezes, blinking at the insult, but before he can retort the mugger collapses. He looks up at the roof, where Donnie’s putting his tranq gun away. “I’m tired of this guy. Let’s tie him up and get outta here,” the purple-clad turtle mutters as Leo looks back down at the mugger, tapping him with his toe lightly. 

His smile is back in an instant though, and he hops up on Raph’s shoulders as his brothers come into the alley. “What’s he even talking about? My stripes are my best feature! With my legs in second, of course~” He practically sparkles where he sits, and his elder brothers roll their eyes as Mikey ties up the mugger. 

“Can we get pizza now?” the youngest finally asks. 

“Hell yeah, Mike! Onwards,  _ mi hermano mayor!” _ the blue-masked brother points forward, earning a flick in the nose. 


End file.
